I met up with a couple of forum member friends for breakfast, then headed over to the show early. We got in line about 45 minutes before the doors opened and the line was already pretty long. The Lakeland Rifle & Pistol Club show is usually one of the better shows in peninsular Florida, and this one didn’t disappoint. They were back to two hangers, though the second one was only half full of vendors. Probably half the people were masked, and no one was enforcing it. The turnout was very good. By the time we left, it was getting hard to easily move through the aisles. Ammo and component prices had us shaking our heads...most ammo was in the $.75 to $1.00 per round range, the two people selling primers, one at a table and the other walking the aisles with a hand lettered sign, both were asking $200/1K. On the firearm side of things, prices were inching up on a lot of the popular plastic guns, but I did see some real bargains. There was a 5946TSW in fair shape for $375, a 39 no dash in nice shape for $675, and a 629-1 mounted with a Leupold scope for $1050 among others. I saw a couple of very nice 1905’s including one in .32-20 that I was tempted by, but the asking prices were a bit high. I came looking for a lever gun in .357, preferably an older Marlin 336 or an older Winchester. I saw quite a few in .35 Rem, .30-30 and .32, but nothing that appealed to me. I didn’t come away empty handed, though. My haul included a near perfect set of J-frame RB Diamond Magnas for $50, two 0-1” micrometers, a Brown & Sharpe, and a Starrett, both for $25, a new in package 4516 mag for $35, two RIA .22TCM magazines(the short ones for the rifle) for $5 each, a set of two Lee universal decapping dies for $15, and 10 new in package Wilson .45ACP moonclips for $10. The guy who had the mikes also had a Hornady labeled Pacific scale marked at $25, but considering the deal he made me on them, I’m sure he would have come down to $15. A pretty good show in my opinion. Got to hang out with friends, saw a lot of vendors who were acquaintances and talked to them, handled a lot of nice guns, and came away with a pretty good haul even if I didn’t find my lever gun and now I’m going to have to find an RIA .22TCM rifle to go with my new mags.
